Shortbread Snowflakes

It’s beginning to look a lot like christmas – and in less than three weeks, it will be!! Twenty-two days of shopping, baking, parties, shopping, planning, shopping…I can hardly contain myself.

To kick off my countdown to the big day, I baked and decorated shortbread cookies in the spirit of the season. I love a good shortbread cookie, especially this time of year. I regard it as comfort food – must be the butter…

To flood the cookies, follow the steps below:

Roll out dough to 1/4″ thick and cut into shapes using cookie cutters or templates

Bake and let cool completely

Attach a #2 tip to decorator’s bag or squeeze bottle and fill with color icing of your choosing

In the bowl of your electric mixer (or with a hand mixer), beat the butter until smooth and creamy (about 1 minute). Add the sugar and beat until smooth (about 2 minutes). Beat in the vanilla extract. Gently stir in the flour mixture just until incorporated.

Flatten the dough into a disk shape, wrap in plastic wrap, and chill the dough for at least an hour or until firm.

Preheat oven to 350 degrees F (177 degrees C) with the rack in the middle of the oven. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.

On a lightly floured surface roll out the dough into a ¼ inch (.6 cm) thick circle. Cut into rounds or other shapes using a lightly floured cookie cutter.

Place on the prepared baking sheets and place in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes. (This will firm up the dough so the cookies will maintain their shape when baked.) Bake for 8 - 10 minutes, or until cookies are very lightly browned. Cool on a wire rack.

Shortbread cookies will keep in an airtight container for about a week, or they may be frozen.

To make royal icing:

In the bowl of an electric or with a hand mixer, beat the egg whites with the lemon juice until combined.

Add the sifted powdered sugar and beat on low speed until combined and smooth. You'll know you have reached the right consistency for flooding when the ribbon of icing that falls back into the bowl remains on the surface for a few seconds before disappearing. Add water if too thick and more powdered sugar of too thin.